The Lima refinery will be paying millions of dollars in penalties and upgrades for violations of the Clean Air Act. The U.S. Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency announced a settlement with Cenovus Energy to pay 19 million dollars in civil penalties for benzene and volatile organic compound emissions. The energy company must also implement an estimated 150 million dollars in capital improvements to reduce emissions of benzene by 4.3 tons per year, other hazardous air pollutants by 16 tons per year, and other volatile organic compound emissions by 219 tons per year.

An air quality alert is issued when air pollution is high, so we can adjust our activities and avoid certain things, like being outdoors during the hottest part of the day. When heat and sunlight mix with exhaust from vehicles and industry, ozone levels rise. Ozone is one of five pollutants considered when calculating air quality. High ozone can aggravate asthma, leading to coughing, wheezing or chest tightness, and allergy sufferers are impacted by ozone as well.

The Allen County Emergency Management Agency has issued an alert to urge people to take action to reduce “ozone” emissions. Curtail driving, mowing, and even barbecuing until the evening hours. This will help maintain the levels of Ozone that the Environmental Protection Agency enforces. Keeping those levels in check not only helps with health conditions but also keeps us from specific mandates for our vehicles.

The American Lung Association released their 2017 "State of The Air" report which states that Allen County has improved their ozone numbers but pollution numbers remained the same.